Workers from the troubled Alberta oilpatch want government help to retrain for jobs in the growing renewable energy sector.

A climate plan released Tuesday by Iron & Earth, an organization started last year by oil industry tradespeople, calls for short-term training and expanded apprenticeships, as well as retooling existing facilities to increase Canada’s renewable energy manufacturing.

The plan also proposes incubator programs for unions, contractors and others moving into the renewable energy sector, and using renewable technology in existing infrastructure.

Most tradespeople need little or no extra training to switch to the renewable field, he said in a later interview.

One of their first proposals is a program to provide five-day courses for 400 Alberta trades next year so they could work in renewables, he said.

The courses would cost $1,700. Participants would pay $600, with the remainder covered by the federal and provincial governments, but Hildebrand said the total budget is under negotiation and he couldn’t estimate how much government would have to contribute.

He also couldn’t indicate the amount of public money the group wants to be used developing Canada’s renewable manufacturing sector.

A Siemens Canada official has estimated up to $50 billion will be spent on renewable energy projects in Alberta and Saskatchewan by 2030.

Randall Benson, owner of Gridworks Energy Group, said he has trained 1,300 tradespeople for the solar field over the past eight years.

There’s demand for workers, he said, although they’ll likely earn less than they would in the oil industry.

He expects investment in new technology funded by Alberta’s carbon levy, and plans to phase out coal-fired power plants, will create thousands of jobs in the next 15 years.

“The work we receive every year does grow quite a bit. I foresee that with these policies coming out … it will be difficult to keep up,” Benson said.

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